A client handing over a tax file number, bank records and their deadlines can check a tax or BAS agent on the TPB Register, and the practice’s website is the natural place to send them there. Three things on the site answer it: the registration number, the TPB’s registered symbol if the practice uses it, and the information the TPB’s Code says a practice gives clients about the Register.
This guide sets out what to show, where each item goes on an accounting or bookkeeping site, how to write it so it matches the Register, and how to keep it current. The Tax Practitioners Board’s own pages are linked throughout and are the place to confirm the current requirements.
General information, not legal advice
This guide is about what to show on a website. Check the current requirements with the Tax Practitioners Board (1300 362 829) or your own adviser before you publish.
What a tax or BAS agent’s website shows
Two TPB rules bring the registration number onto the website. If you use the TPB’s registered tax practitioner symbol, its terms of use say: “You must only use the symbol if it is accompanied by your registration number.” And the Code of Professional Conduct requires every registered agent to tell current and prospective clients about the TPB Register and how to search it. It names a publicly accessible website as one way to do that, and the TPB recommends a direct link to your own entry. The registration number is what makes that link make sense: the client lands on your entry and reads the same number there.
| What to show | Where it goes | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| A registration line: the entity's name, "Registered tax agent" or "Registered BAS agent", and the number | The footer, on every page, with the number linked to the entity's own TPB Register entry | A client who checks reaches the right entry in one tap, and sees the same number on both |
| The registered symbol, if you use it | Beside the practice logo in the footer or on the contact page, on a plain light background | It is the TPB's own mark, and it carries the number and the type of registration |
| Client information about the Register | A client information page, linked from the footer and the engagement letter | It answers what the Code says clients are told, in the same words as the letter |
| Each practitioner's registration | The team page, under each person's name | The client sees who holds which registration before they book |
| Services that match the registration | The service pages | A client who compares the site with the Register finds the two agree |
Every source is listed at the end of this guide, with a link to the TPB’s own page.
Services on the site should match the registration
Only a registered agent may advertise tax agent services or BAS services. With narrow exceptions, the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 reserves advertising tax agent services that are not BAS services, such as income tax returns, to registered tax agents, and advertising BAS services to registered tax agents and BAS agents. Nobody may claim to be registered when they are not. For a website, three things follow:
- A BAS agent’s site leaves tax returns off. The TPB’s guide for consumers lists preparing and lodging tax returns as work for tax agents, and says BAS agents “can only provide some of the services tax agents are registered to provide.” A practice registered only as a BAS agent lists BAS work and bookkeeping.
- Conditions narrow the service list. The TPB can place conditions on a registration, and its Register help page says a condition “limits the subject area in respect of which the tax practitioner may provide tax agent services”. The conditions show on the Register, so the services on the site stay inside them.
- Social profiles count as well as the site. The TPB reads advertising widely. In one published finding against a former accountant whose registration had been terminated, it named posts on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook as advertising tax agent services. The services on the practice’s social profiles match the website and the Register too.
The registered tax practitioner symbol
A registered tax or BAS agent who agrees to the symbol’s terms of use can ask the TPB to create their own. Using it is optional: the TPB’s symbol guidelines say registered practitioners “may use the symbol in advertising”, and then: “Registered tax practitioners must use the symbol in conjunction with their registration number.” The terms and conditions of use say the same.
What the symbol must have
Three parts, at a fixed size and spacing
- The logo, the type of practitioner (tax agent or BAS agent) and the registration number.
- At least 22 mm (136 pixels) wide for the stacked version on screen, 18 mm in print, and 44.5 mm (168 pixels) for the inline version.
- Clear space around it of half the diameter of its inner green circle.
- Your name on any written material that carries it.
What the TPB lists as incorrect use
Changing the symbol or separating the number
- Redesigning, rotating, distorting or recolouring it, or adding effects such as drop shadows.
- Placing it over a photographic, patterned or complicated background.
- Moving the registration number, colouring it, or setting it below seven point.
- Using it below the minimum size, or co-branding it with the TPB or other logos.
The TPB’s preference is for the symbol to sit to the right of your practice logo with the bottom edges aligned, and it recommends the bottom right corner. It should sit on a white background where possible. You download your own symbol from My Profile on the TPB’s website, and the TPB’s download page says to use the JPG and PNG files “for web use”. The guidelines add that you should “only ever use an original, unaltered file”.
Companies and partnerships use their own number. Where a registered company contracts with a client, “they must use the company’s registration number in conjunction with the symbol, not the registration number of any other registered tax practitioner associated with the company.” The guidelines say the same of partnerships. So the number beside the symbol on a firm’s website is the firm’s.
When it comes down. The guidelines list when the symbol must not be used, including where the entity is not registered, has not applied to renew in time, has had a renewal rejected, has surrendered its registration, or is suspended or terminated. A suspension ends the licence to use the symbol as soon as it takes effect, and once the licence ends the symbol comes off the practice’s goods and services within the time the TPB sets. A practice that sells up or moves also takes the symbol off signs, awnings and other displays at the old premises.
The client information page
The Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 requires registered agents to advise all current and prospective clients “that the Board maintains a register of registered tax agents and BAS agents and how they can access and search the register”, along with other information about complaints and obligations. The information is given in writing, “in a prominent, clear and unambiguous way”. The Determination’s own example of a practice that meets the requirement starts with the agent publishing the information “on a publicly accessible website that they use to promote the tax agent services they offer”, then adds the letter of engagement and the TPB’s Information for clients factsheet.
What the client information page covers
- That the TPB keeps a register, and how to access and search it
- A direct link to your own entry on the Register
- How to complain about a service, including the TPB's complaints process
- Your rights, responsibilities and obligations as a registered agent
- What obligations your clients have to you
- Any conditions on your registration, a current suspension, or other prescribed events the Code lists
The TPB’s guidance statement TPB(GS) 54/2024 Keeping your clients informed sets out the minimum it recommends for the Register: that the TPB keeps it, that it can be reached through the TPB’s website “and a direct link is provided to the registered tax practitioner’s register entry”, and how to search it. The same guidance says a prospective client includes someone who has contacted you about an engagement “by email, phone or website”, and that information about a prescribed event should stay on a website for as long as it could reasonably matter to a client’s decision, and at least as long as it shows on the Register.
For the website, one page does the job. Write it once, link it from the footer on every page and from the engagement letter template, and the website and the letter say the same thing.
Bookkeeping sites: describing BAS work
A bookkeeper who provides BAS services for a fee registers as a BAS agent, as the TPB’s BAS agent registration page explains. Not every bookkeeping task is a BAS service, though, and the website is where that difference shows. The TPB’s guidance statement TPB(GS) 43/2023 What is a BAS service? says “entering data, coding transactions based on instructions provided, processing payments or preparing bank reconciliations” are not BAS services “because they do not require the interpretation or application of a BAS provision”, and that “Whether a particular service is a BAS service is a question of fact.”
These rows come from the TPB’s own table on its BAS services page. They are useful wording for a services page, because they describe each task the way the TPB does.
| Service, in the TPB's words | BAS service? | TPB table row |
|---|---|---|
| Performing bank reconciliations | No | 40 |
| Entering data without involvement in or calculation of figures to be included on a client's activity statement | No | 41 |
| Coding tax invoices and transferring data onto a computer program for clients under the instruction and supervision of a registered tax or BAS agent | No | 34 |
| Installing computer accounting software without determining default GST and other codes tailored to the client | No | 31 |
| Installing computer accounting software and determining default GST and other codes tailored to clients | Yes | 8 |
| Reconciling BAS provision data entry to ascertain the figures to be included on a client's activity statement | Yes | 9 |
| Completing activity statements on behalf of a client or instructing them which figures to include | Yes | 10 |
| Applying to the Registrar for an ABN on behalf of a client | Yes | 5 |
On the site, that suggests two pages: a bookkeeping page that lists the data entry, coding, payments and reconciliation work, and a BAS page that lists activity statements, GST coding set-up and the other BAS work. A bookkeeper who isn’t a registered BAS agent keeps the first page and describes the bookkeeping it does.
How a client checks the TPB Register
The TPB keeps the Register and makes it available online. Its Register help page explains what a client sees, and a link from the footer and the client information page saves them looking for it.
- Open the TPB RegisterIt is on the TPB's Public Register page, under "Is your tax practitioner registered?"
- Search by name or numberThe TPB says to enter the practitioner's legal or registration name, their ASIC registered business name or their registration number, and narrow it by practitioner type, state, suburb or status.
- Open the entryIt shows the registration type and number, contact details, status, first registration date, expiry date, any conditions, and sanctions other than a written caution, which stay for 5 years or while in force, whichever is longer.
- Or search near an addressThe second search finds registered practitioners up to 75 km from an address. A practitioner's physical address appears on the map only if they have chosen to publish it.
Practitioners choose which contact details appear through My Profile, and at least one has to be published at any time. Make the business name, phone number and email on the Register match the website, so a client who checks both sees one practice. Professional association memberships on an entry are supplied by the practitioner, and the TPB encourages clients to check them with the association.
Where the number and symbol go on an accounting website
This is how I set out a registration on an accounting or bookkeeping site, so that a client who checks finds the same number everywhere and can reach the Register in one tap.
- A registration line in the footerThe entity's name, "Registered tax agent" or "Registered BAS agent", and the registration number, with the number linked to the entity's own entry on the TPB Register. The footer is on every page, and it is where people look for the fine print.
- The symbol, if you use it, beside your logoIn the footer or on the contact page, at 136 pixels wide or more, on a plain white or light background, using the PNG the TPB supplies without changes. Never over a hero photo, which the guidelines rule out.
- A client information pageThe Register with a link to your entry, how to complain and the TPB's complaints form, your obligations and your clients', and any conditions or prescribed events. Link it from the footer and from the engagement letter.
- Each practitioner's registration on the team pageWritten out as text, with the type of registration, beside the person who holds it. The symbol stays with the firm's number, because that is the entity contracting with the client.
- Service pages that match the registrationA BAS agent's site lists BAS work and bookkeeping, not tax returns. A registration with conditions lists only the services inside them. Clients can compare both with the Register.
- The same line on the contact page and Google Business ProfileWhere a listing has room for a description, write the registration exactly as it reads on the site.
- In the structured data, as textThe page markup can carry the registration as a credential, so search engines read the same number as the client. Text can also be copied straight into the Register search, which a picture of a certificate can't.
A firm’s markup can name the registration and the body that issues it. The number goes where the placeholder is:
"hasCredential": [{
"@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
"credentialCategory": "registration",
"name": "Registered tax agent [registration number]",
"recognizedBy": { "@type": "GovernmentOrganization", "name": "Tax Practitioners Board" }
}]Keep the number in one place in the site’s code, so the footer, team page, client information page and markup change together when it does.
Two more lines often belong in the same footer, and both come from bodies other than the TPB. The Professional Standards Councils’ disclosure factsheet says members covered by a professional standards scheme use the statement “Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation”, in type no smaller than Times New Roman 8 point, and lists websites among the places it should appear. CA ANZ’s marketing page tells its Australian public practice members to put that disclaimer on “website pages”. And a professional body’s logo follows that body’s rules: CA ANZ allows the CA logo on a firm’s website only where the firm meets its Chartered Firm requirements, and CPA Australia’s public practice help page says only its Public Practice Operations team can decide whether a practice may brand as a CPA practice.
When the registration lapses, changes or is suspended
Registration has to be renewed. The TPB’s answers from its Know your obligations webinar say that if you fail to renew on time you can no longer provide tax agent or BAS services for a fee or other reward, and that a new application, “if approved, would result in a new registration number.”
- A new number means new copy. The footer line, the team page, the markup, the engagement letter template and the symbol file all carry the old one.
- A suspension takes the symbol away at once. The symbol’s terms end the licence to use it when the suspension takes effect.
- Conditions and suspensions go to clients. The Code requires you to tell current and prospective clients if your registration is subject to conditions or is suspended, so the client information page changes too.
Update the site in the same week as anything changes on the Register, so the site, the Google profile and the Register agree.
Sources
The Tax Practitioners Board’s own pages and the legislation they refer to, each linked. Confirm the current version with the TPB before you publish.
Who may advertise tax agent and BAS services, and the TPB Register.
Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024
Keeping clients informed about the Register.
Registered tax practitioner symbol guidelines and Terms and conditions of use
The symbol's parts, sizes, placement and when it comes down.
The files to use on the web.
TPB(GS) 54/2024 Keeping your clients informed
The direct link to your Register entry, and website information.
TPB(GS) 43/2023 What is a BAS service? and BAS services
What is and is not a BAS service.
Who registers as a BAS agent.
Help with using the TPB Register and Public Register
How a client searches the Register and what an entry shows.
Finding and using a tax practitioner and Know your obligations
Tax agent and BAS agent services compared, and renewal.
Your responsibilities: limited liability disclosure
The limited liability statement and where it appears.
Marketing your practice, Practice structures and Public practice help
The disclaimer on website pages, and who may use each body's logo.
Where Kovus fits
A Kovus site for an accounting or bookkeeping practice is built so the details the TPB expects are easy to show: one registration line in the footer linked to your Register entry, a client information page, each practitioner’s registration on the team page, and the number in the markup, all kept in one place in the code. A registration number goes on the site once it can be checked on the TPB Register, and you approve the final wording before launch. Website builds cost A$500 to A$1,000.
What else an accounting or bookkeeping site needs, page by page, is on the page about websites for accountants and bookkeepers. The registration is one part of a practice’s marketing, and the rest, from the Google profile to reviews and referral partners, is in marketing for accountants.
Talk about an accounting site →
Frequently asked questions
Where should a tax agent put the registration number on a website?
In a registration line in the footer, so it is on every page: the entity's name, Registered tax agent or Registered BAS agent, and the number, linked to the entity's own entry on the TPB Register. Beside the TPB's registered symbol if you use it, because the symbol's terms say it must be accompanied by your registration number. And on the team page, and on a client information page that tells clients about the Register, as the Code of Professional Conduct requires.
What is a tax agent registration number?
It is the number the Tax Practitioners Board gives a registered tax agent or BAS agent when it registers them, and it appears on the TPB Register. Individuals, companies and partnerships each have their own. The TPB says that if you miss the renewal date, you need to lodge a new application, and if it is approved you get a new registration number.
How do I check if a tax agent or BAS agent is registered?
Search the TPB Register on the TPB's website by the practitioner's name, their ASIC registered business name or their registration number. The entry shows whether they are a tax agent or BAS agent, their status, any conditions that limit the services they can provide, and sanctions the TPB has imposed. A second search finds registered practitioners up to 75 km from an address.
Can a BAS agent's website list tax returns?
Leave them off. The TPB's comparison of services lists preparing and lodging tax returns as work for tax agents, not BAS agents, and only a registered tax agent may advertise tax agent services that are not BAS services. A BAS agent's site lists BAS work and bookkeeping, and the services on it match what the TPB Register shows.
How should a bookkeeping website describe BAS work?
Name BAS work as BAS work, separate from bookkeeping. The TPB's guidance says entering data, coding transactions on instructions, processing payments and preparing bank reconciliations are not BAS services, while completing activity statements for a client, or telling them which figures to include, is. A bookkeeping page and a BAS page, each describing its own tasks, lets a client see which is which.
How should the TPB registered agent symbol be used on a website?
The symbol is optional. If you use it, it carries your registration number and says whether you are a tax agent or BAS agent. On screen the stacked version is at least 22 mm or 136 pixels wide. You must not recolour, rotate or redraw it, colour the number or set it below seven point. A company or partnership uses its own number, and the symbol comes down when the registration lapses or is suspended.
What goes on a client information page on an accounting website?
That the TPB keeps a register of tax and BAS agents and how to search it, with a direct link to your own entry; how to make a complaint, including the TPB's complaints process; your obligations and your clients' obligations; and any conditions on your registration or prescribed events the Code says clients must be told about. Link it from the footer and from the engagement letter.